Category Archives: Young Adult

This tag contains all books tagged as Young Adult fiction and relevant non-fiction.

Watch Me by Tahereh Mafi

James Anderson had a plan. Or half of one. All that matters is that he managed to do what his older brother, the famous Aaron Warner Anderson, never did: infiltrate Ark Island, the last refuge of The Reestablishment. In the past decade no outsider has breached the stronghold of the authoritarian regime, but James is in. In a prison cell, sure, but as far as James is concerned, a win is a win. It’s been ten years since the fall of The Reestablishment. Ten years since the notorious duo — Juliette Ferrars and… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Graphic murder
  • Blackmail

Sibylline by Melissa de la Cruz

Raven, Atticus, and Dorian have dreamed of attending Sibylline for as long as they can remember. But when the magical ivy league rejects them, the friends’ plans of a future together studying the arcane begin crashing down. Until they decide to steal an education. Getting jobs on campus, they sneak into lectures and swipe forbidden texts, dodging the administration’s watchful eye. In the quiet of night, in the thrill of secrecy, their magic awakens. And so do long-buried attractions that turn their friendship into something more… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Dubious consent scenario (including borderline necrophilia)
  • Blood & injury depiction

Dead Happy by Josh Silver

Friends. Welcome to Elmhallow. Seb, along with a select group of participants, finds himself washed up on an isolated island called Elmhallow, under the guardianship of a mysterious couple. As the experiment steps up another level, Seb is forced to team up with Eleanor once more. But where is Finn? And what does HappyHead have in store for them next?

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Eugenics
  • Suicide mentioned
  • Drug use recounted
  • Blood & injury depiction
  • Emesis mentioned
  • Murder & torture
  • Physical assault
  • Animal death & cruelty

HappyHead by Josh Silver

We are in an epidemic. An epidemic of unhappiness. Friends, here is the good news: HappyHead has the answer. When Seb is offered a place on a radical retreat designed to solve the national crisis of teenage unhappiness, he is determined to change how people see him and make his parents proud. But as he finds himself drawn to the enigmatic Finn, Seb starts to question the true nature of the challenges they must undergo. The deeper into the programme the boys get, the more disturbing the assessments become, until it’s clear there may be no escape…

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia & outing mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption & drug use mentioned
  • Overdose mentioned
  • Emesis
  • Animal death

Fire Colour One by Jenny Valentine

Sixteen-year-old Iris itches constantly for the strike of a match. But when she’s caught setting one too many fires, she’s whisked away to London before she can get arrested—at least that’s the story her mother tells. Mounting debt actually drove them out of LA, and it’s greed that brings them to a home Iris doesn’t recognize, where her millionaire father—a man she’s never met—lives. Though not for much longer. Iris’s father is dying, and her mother is determined to claim his life’s fortune, including his priceless art collection. Forced to live with him as part of an exploitive scheme, Iris soon realizes her father is far different… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Attempted rape (on-page)
  • Pyromania & fire (theme, protagonist)
  • Parent with terminal ilness

Crimson Reign by Amélie Wen Zhao

The Red Tigress, Ana Mikhailov, has returned to Cyrilia, but the country she once called home has fallen under a dark rule. Across the land, the Empress Morganya is tightening her grip on Affinites and non-Affinites alike. Ana dealt a blow to the Empress when she and her allies turned back Morganya’s troops in Bregon, but she couldn’t stop Morganya from gaining possession of the last remaining Bregonian siphon: a dangerous new weapon with the power to steal Affinities. Ana’s forces are scattered, and her tenuous alliance with the Cyrilian rebel group, the Red Cloaks, is becoming… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Torture
  • War themes & battle scenes

Dark Star Burning, Ash Falls White by Amélie Wen Zhao

Fate brought them together. The gods will tear them apart. The demon gods have risen. Skies’s End has fallen to the colonizers. And Lan and Zen have chosen sides. But they will not fight together. Though Lan inherited the power of the Silver Dragon, she understands the path she must take. She believes the Demon Gods to be the cause of war, conflict, and turmoil. Worse, she knows that if the Elatians manage to bind one of the legendary beings, their army will be unstoppable. To save kingdom and her people, Lan will need to find the only mythical weapon… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sex work mentioned
  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Minor blood & gore depiction
  • Torture
  • Knife, sword, bow & arrow & weapon violence
  • Physical assault

The Scorpion and the Night Blossom by Amélie Wen Zhao

Nine years ago, the war between the Kingdom of Night and the Kingdom of Rivers tore Àn’yīng’s family apart, leaving her mother barely alive and a baby sister to fend for. Now the mortal realm is falling into eternal night, and mó—beautiful, ravenous demons—roam the land, feasting on the flesh of humans and drinking their souls. Àn’yīng is no longer a helpless child, though. Armed with her crescent blades and trained in the ancient art of practitioning, she has decided to enter the Immortality Trials, which are open to any mortal who can survive the journey to the… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Alcohol consumption mentioned
  • Graphic blood & gore depiction (on-page)
  • Knife, sword, bow & arrow & weapon violence
  • Torture including public whippings & water torture

Song of Silver, Flame Like Night by Amélie Wen Zhao

Once, Lan had a different name. Now she goes by the one the Elantian colonizers gave her when they invaded her kingdom, killed her mother, and outlawed her people’s magic. She spends her nights as a songgirl in Haak’gong, a city transformed by the conquerors, and her days scavenging for what she can find of the past. Anything to understand the strange mark burned into her arm by her mother in her last act before she died.

The mark is mysterious—an untranslatable Hin character—and no one but Lan can see it… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Racism
  • Colonialism
  • Attempted sexual assault
  • Child abuse
  • Death of parents
  • Genocide
  • Torture
  • Knife violence
  • Physical assault
  • Loss of autonomy (possession)

The Dire King by William Ritter

The fate of the world is in the hands of detective of the supernatural R. F. Jackaby and his intrepid assistant, Abigail Rook. An evil king is turning ancient tensions into modern strife, using a blend of magic and technology to push Earth and the Otherworld into a mortal competition. Jackaby and Abigail are caught in the middle as they continue to solve the daily mysteries of New Fiddleham, New England — like who’s created the rend between the worlds, how to close it, and why zombies are appearing around. At the same time, the romance between Abigail and the shape… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Murder
  • Sword & knife violence
  • Animal attack